NSAC hears arguments in Penn vs. St. Pierre, official action yet to come

LAS VEGAS – Anyone hoping for a resolution to “Greasegate” and the controversial UFC 94 main-event bout between champions Georges St. Pierre and B.J. Penn will likely be disappointed following Tuesday’s Nevada State Athletic Commission hearing on the matter.

The commission heard testimony from both sides in the debate but did not offer any formal resolution.

The meeting was held at the Grant Sawyer State Office Building in Las Vegas.

At the heart of the matter was Penn’s allegations that St. Pierre had an unfair advantage in the Jan. 31 fight. Penn, whose fighting style heavily incorporates Brazilian jiu-jitsu and ground fighting, said he was at a disadvantage because of Vaseline applied to St. Pierre’s body between rounds of the fight.

The NSAC’s desire was to treat the review as a simple fact-finding mission; Penn and his camp, meanwhile, had hoped that the meeting would be treated as a formal investigation of improper behavior.

After the commissioners reviewed a video provided by the UFC that focused on the actions of St. Pierre’s cornermen between rounds, and specifically the alleged inappropriate application of Vaseline to the welterweight champion’s back and shoulders, both camps were able to present their views of the events surrounding the bout.

First to speak was St. Pierre’s striking coach and cornerman Phil Nurse, who admitted that the evidence “doesn’t look good” but that he and his team had no intentions of cheating or looking to gain an unfair advantage.

“It looks like I was putting Vaseline on him,” Nurse said. “In hindsight, it probably shouldn’t have happened.”

Nurse continued to answer nearly 20 minutes of questions from the commission as he explained again the breathing technique that was being applied to St. Pierre as well as his feelings regarding the controversy. Nurse also said that the decision for him to be the one responsible for applying the Vaseline to St. Pierre between rounds was made very quickly in the final moments before the bout. He said the choice was an unfortunate one.

“Honestly, I wasn’t even set to do the Vaseline,” Nurse said. “I probably shouldn’t have been that guy (to apply the Vaseline).”

St. Pierre’s head coach, Greg Jackson, followed. Jackson also assured the commission that he and his team never intended to try to gain an unfair advantage.

“It was kind of a last-minute deal. In hindsight, I probably should have done the Vaseline if [Nurse] was going to do the energy technique, but we were a little rushed to the cage. It will never happen again, believe me. We’re not even bringing Vaseline into the corner anymore.”

When asked if the possibility of Vaseline being applied incorrectly — even if by accident — was ever considered based on the team’s practice of rubbing the chest, shoulders and back of their fighter, Jackson said he never considered that potential outcome.

“It was never brought up at all,” Jackson said. “We never discussed that issue. Frankly it never entered into our thoughts.”

Nurse and Jackson said they plan to have commission representatives apply Vaseline to Team Jackson fighters in the future.

“It’s actually beneficial for me,” Jackson said. “It’s one less thing I have to worry about, and we wouldn’t have any controversies like this.”

Penn: These guys got caught

While the first half of the meeting was very sterile in nature, the feelings of the proceedings changed as Penn’s camp took center stage.

First to speak was Penn’s attorney, Raffi Nahabedian, who objected to the limited footage the commission viewed at the beginning of the proceedings.

“You guys witnessed today what I consider to be prejudicial footage,” Nahabedian said. “It doesn’t show what happened in the second round after the representative of the commission said to Mr. Kizer, ‘I think I saw him putting grease on [St. Pierre’s] body.’

“If you watch the second round, you’ll notice the effect that that grease had on the body. Mr. St. Pierre was able to slip in and out of Mr. Penn’s guard. I would like the commission to have had the chance to review that, especially here today, where we could go through and watch this.”

Nahabedian said he believed it was important for the commission to view all of the available footage of the event since the video offered only a limited viewpoint of the action.

Shortly after, Penn was asked directly if he felt that St. Pierre was exceptionally slippery during the contest.

“I don’t remember much after the second round because of the beating that I took in the second round,” Penn said. “But I do remember somewhere in the second round — to be honest with you, I was thinking, ‘He knows I can’t hold him. He knows I can’t hold him. Now he’s just going to be fearless with what he’s doing because I can’t hold him.'”

St. Pierre was not present for the hearings since he was never asked by the commission to appear. Penn voiced his concern for the welterweight champ’s absence.

“I’m very surprised that Mr. St. Pierre is not here because Mr. Nurse and Mr. Jackson are here because the commission was on the lookout for Mr. St. Pierre,” Penn said. “These guys got caught or however you want to say it.”

Penn also explained his passion for reaching resolution in the case.

“This sport is something very special to me,” Penn said. “When it comes to cheating or bending the rules, I don’t know why anybody would want to be the world champion with a belt around their waist and be cheating to get there.

“It doesn’t make sense to me. It must be strictly about the money or the fame or whatever other reason because it ain’t about the pride of holding a championship belt.”

Penn’s mother, Lorraine Shin, also addressed the commission with an emotionally charged prepared statement in which she charged the NSAC for a failure to handle things properly to date. When the commission thanked Penn’s mother for her statement and acknowledged her obvious love for her son, Shin said her motivations went well beyond her child.

“It’s not for the love of my son; it’s for my love of the sport,” Shin said. “It’s to protect every fighter that comes forward.

“It’s not for just my son. It’s to do the right thing.”

Path to resolution still unclear

Surprisingly, the commission closed the meeting without taking any steps toward a possible finding of fault or scheduling a time when the group can review possible rule changes.

Following the close of the meeting, NSAC Chairman Bill Brady told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) the issue could still be revisited at a future meeting, though he said nothing was certain.

“We heard the testimony and the questions,” Brady said.”It may be that we come forward with new rules that were suggested. That’s what this meeting was, an advisory meeting. We don’t want anything like this to happen again.”

Brady went on to explain that the status of the conflict was still a bit unclear.

“At some future time, and I’m not saying by the next meeting, or it could be — there might be something that comes forward — and there might not be,” Brady said. “It may already be settled.”

After the meeting, NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer told MMAjunkie.com that the possible ongoing review of the UFC 94 bout will not have any impact on future bouts scheduled by either Penn or St. Pierre, though Nahabedian was overheard telling the team representing St. Pierre’s camp that he was looking forward to a future day in court.

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